Are Soldering Fumes Dangerous? 

I used to work for a large company, I complained to the health and safety person about the dangers of doing large amounts of soldering every day. The health and safety person went away to look into it, and came back and told me it was perfectly safe, but would not of course put it in writing. This was British Telecom around 1980. My solution was to never solder anything ever again.

Answer: yes. Reason why: chemicals. Solution: ventilation

I use my lungs to filter the fumes.

i was breathing soldering fumes, sometimes for hours. i always had some kind of dizziness after 2-3 hours! Now i just use a PC fan to suck the fumes and i have no problem!!

For me the reaction is almost instant. I get severe headaches, worse bit my soldering area is too small and i don't use extractor, thanks for your tips.

I solder a lot while working on my radio control hobby gear. It definitely helps to have a fan to circulate the air. I've found that when I've forgot to turn my fan on that I don't feel well afterwards. Great video and a very good reminder that no matter what we are soldering that we should be taking proper precautions.

So sad... I loved the smell of soldering! It had a certain nostalgic effect on me, taking me all the way back to high school, in the 70's, where I was first exposed to that sweet smell of technolgy! LOL

Thanks for this. I worked around a lot of solderers, 2013 to 2015, & they all seemed to have respiratory problems, eczema, & psoriasis, so I wondered. I would like my kid to learn, but safely.

Nice video. Very well explained. I repair cellphones and when microsoldering you really get close to the fumes. I knew it was toxic so I decided to purchase an extractor. Much better now! :)

All I know is from my welding teacher that don't mess with lead, zinc, and a few other toxic metals. Soldering is sadly using lead but I saw a few ways to reduce the hazards by having a fan blow the smoke away from near you.

I'm sold, time to buy one after I had a soldering fume related wake up call recently.

The best awareness video in solder fumes injuries to health

Great work buddy you earned a new sub! BTW i love how you answer every comment even if its late. Keep going 👍

Great Information thanks for the video ❤

thanks. I was just soldering and breathed in the fumes (not to mention the rubber on the cord that accidentally burned that I also breathed in lol) and started to feel unwell. this helped cause I had no idea the fumes were bad for you. thanks!

A few minutes ago, I just tested using a 3M heavy duty respirator (with 2097 filters) by melting some solder. The filters effectively prevented me from inhaling eau de solder fumes, and was around US $30 for he respirator frame and the filters, which came as a kit.

Having just bought a lead testing kit to test the filter on my dinky fume extractor, I can ABSOLUTELY confirm lead is getting in the air. Just because it doesn't *vaporize* doesn't mean it also won't aerosolize or turn into dust that you end up blowing around the room. At this point, I'm thinking that complaining about unleaded solder is like complaining about seatbelts being uncomfortable. (That and unleaded solder is getting much better; to the credit of the video, is better now than it *was* then).

I just started getting into soldering a week ago and was worried about fumes and this is the first video I watched. Thanks for the information. I'm on a budget so I'll probably build my own filter with a CPU fan and som carbon filter cloth lol. I hope that would be alright. :)

I was a leadman on an aerospace electronic assembly line working on intricate computer point to point wire soldering using 60/40 tin/lead rosin core solder and common soldering irons. Neither I, nor my soldering assembly workers ever complained of illness due to lead fume inhalation. Later on I was briefed on forthcoming PC board solder bath production techniques using lead free solders and fluxes. I do not use lead free solders and fluxes for my present day RC hobby connector soldering. Lead free solders require significantly more heat which can damage plastic connector bodies and is much harder to use in getting good solder flow connections.

so I'm not gonna die from breathing them in like once right? lol

I've been soldering for a few months, I never directly breathed it in, I would always put my shirt over my face or hold my breath and blow the smoke away until it was gone, then I would start breathing again. Do you think I could get sick, even if I actively practiced this habit? I am such a germaphobe I always worry if something is toxic or dangerous for me, so I never breathed it in, I may have one for a few seconds but not a whole lot.

My main concern was lead fumes, so thank god for that. Still, I have a question: Alloys tend to have a lower melting/boiling points than the pure metals, so may the solder have a lower boiling point too?

If it is not air, do not breath it. If it is not water, do not bathe in it. Good advice from an old chemist. Studies have been done, that indicate that about 20 % of workers soldering become sensitized to the fumes and develop asthma like symptoms. This has been referred to as solvent sensitization. A number of my fellow chemist are sensitive to certain organic solvents. It is serious enough that hospitalization may be needed. I used a fume hood in the laboratories where I worked to good effect. At home, I go outside. Not always comfortable, but it works.

I started soldering when I was about 13 years old. I am 62 now. I don't think it ever hurt me at all. However, I didn't let the smoke go right into my face. I always held my breath a little and breathed when the fumes passed away. Always held the solder in my LEFT hand, but I eat apples or other hand-food with my right hand. Also washed my hands before eating most of the time. The problem with solder smoke is it always seems to travel towards your face. Probably because of the heat rising off of a persons body causes it. A very small muffin-fan would blow the fumes away from the face I would recommend. In my experience, it is nothing to worry about as long as you keep the stuff out of you mouth and take some precautions like the small muffin fan and washing your hands. I worked many years as a bench repair technician... doing soldering 8 hours a day for years and years. Everyone is too hyper worried about this issue. I think the FLUX in electronics solder is just PINE TAR. So it's like burning a log in the fire place. Not like smoking a cigarette.

The few times I solder without ventilation, small Arduino stuff without lead in it. I get a strange feeling in my head for 20 minutes, it goes away pretty fast. Don't think that is any more dangerous than passive smoking. Good tip is to not breath when the smoke comes up, at least you will breath a less concentration of it, but always open a window if you can.

All of the fume extractor’s on Amazon say they only remove 80% and the other ones are honestly out of my price range. So I’m thinking about going to Harbor Freight buying a air mover with a tube and sucking on the toxic fumes out into my neighbors backyard.

I just wear a P100 mask. It won't stop organic gases but it does block particulates. It makes a huge difference.

I own a 3m cartridge based respirator and I wanted to know what filters would work best for protection against fumes when soldering I know about proper ventilation but I’d like to avoid it as much as I can due to my asthma

I bought a cheap high velocity fan ($7) from the local home improvement store + extractor filters off Amazon ($13, instead of the expensive extractors available). I'm using wire ($2) to attach the filters to the fan, to make my own inexpensive extractor, which will blow away from me, toward a window. I'm setting up a work table right near a window, that I can also open for ventilation, with the filter extractor fan pointed toward this window. I'm using a 2nd fan (I already owned) in the window, pointing out, to extract the fumes more thoroughly as well, (to use as needed... when weather permits/ or for limited 'air clearing' bursts, etc). To isolate window air flow (& prevent air blowing in): I'm simply taping plastic from a roll between my window frame & onto the edge of my window, with slack, so when i open the window, the plastic will spread out to cover the area above the fan, to help channel the air the way I want it to go. Very inexpensive.... about $22 since I already have a roll of plastic & tape for it & 2nd fan. (This will help with all sculpture type art work I do that creates fumes as well).

Great video! I've gotta get me one of those fans! No solder smoking...got it...

I definitely feel my asthma when I have been soldering, worse as I’m getting older. It’s a good reminder not that I use extraction as is noisy and annoying. I will have to think seriously about extraction. The fan is a good idea it at least dilutes the fume and exposure.

Great video. You explained it very well.

I'm in the process of building a high flow carbon filter for my workbench at the moment. Mostly, I want it with enough flow to draw cigarette smoke away to stop it burning my eyes while soldering. I've been soldering since I was 8 as a hobbyist (30 years) I have all the bad habits you can imagine including, on occasion, holding the solder in my teeth when that bastard wire won't sit on the land pad (hate them little buggers). I used to worry about these things. A couple of years ago I quit my job, working as an electroplater. For curiosity, and just to make sure I hadn't been poisoned by my prick of a boss, I went and had a blood test for all heavy metals but especially lead and hexavalent chromium. I had worked there for just over 12 months. Test came back all clear. ZERO detectable heavy metals. I don't see all of these ill effects the medical industry bangs on about. I don't think it's ALL scare mongering and propaganda but I do think it is all talked up. As an example, a couple of years back it made it to the 6pm news that "common table salt" was the main contributor in some 40 odd percent of heart attacks, but that didn't change the statistics for heart attacks from cigarettes. I'm building one for comfort and I would advise anyone to do the same if I was asked, but while the government is pushing for more diesel powered passenger cars on the road and reports of car manufacturing like VW fudging emissions reports, I'm not overly worried about cancer and disease in general because mostly it's outside of my control. Are you aware that fine particulates from deisel combustion were considered the NO.1 cause of cancer not that long ago? The list has been updated, but it's still in the top ten, possibly even the top five, I haven't looked recently. All that aside, statistically, the biggest known cause of death to mankind, is life itself. That's my own observation. You only have one life and it is short, so go live it. A wise man once said to me "Everything in moderation, including moderation", I try to live by that now.

I really don't realize it when I do it but when I solder a connection, I take a deep breath and as I solder, I slowly exhale directing the air stream towards my soldering blowing the smoke away. Now that I'm much older the smoke seems to bother me a lot more than it did when I was younger so now, I work harder at not breathing any smoke at all.

Dang I solder a lot of stuff in my room and just ignored the smoke but didn’t think on that I’ve been breathing metal and chemicals

Extremely toxic...don't doubt it

For electrical board work, there are several types of solder flux generally in use, organic and inorganic. Organic (rosin core) is the usual solder sold to hobby people, while inorganic is available from electronic parts houses if you ask for it. With inorganic, you have to wash the circuit board with water after soldering or the flux will cause the board to fail. With inorganic, the smoke is very bad and a fan is used to direct it away, but the result joint is much better than rosin. Rosin smoke is much less toxic, but a fan is cheap insurance. As to the metal used, lead types are much better to apply, the tin types don't form the gray toxic residue on your fingers that finds its way into your body during the day.

You can find fume extractors for less than 20$ USD on ebay. I think it'd be a better idea than a fan since the fan doesn't filter the smoke if you're in a small area it might end up as bad.. Fume extractor actually filters the smoke

My gf came home one day, into the workroom and proclaimed "woah the house smells weird" - lol..... it was because of the copious amounts of flux i had been using on the board to replace a HDMI port. With no ventilation! Tonight after working for a few hours doing the same task on 2 boards i figure lets look into this. I find this whole thing disturbing now to be honest. Definitely have experienced the headaches whilst soldering, that cant be good. Its difficult because in an industrial situation you can understand the need for fume extraction. when you are seldom soldering for particular repairs its almost like in your mind "nah don't need it, don't do it enough to warrant it". Definitely starting to think the other way about this subject, going to get some kind of extractor setup. whats worrying is that upstairs in house completely stinks after the soldering, cant be good. I did wonder if an air-conditioning unit with the fan tube stuck out the window would be sufficient, you know just to get the air moving or "pulled" away such. Arguably even a desk fan, but i feel like that is just moving whatever already in the air around. do carbon scrubbers really remove the baddies in the flux fumes though? extraction seems the best option i think, with the air con or even a deskfan facing out a window lol.

Thank god I wear gloves and a breathing mask and I was very good on the washing hands but I need to wear safety glasses

It's always the case the smoke drifts towards my face (think I saw a video about this) but I always have the window open and hold my breath when it blows towards me

Thanks for the video! I haven't soldered in a number of years but just recently bought an adjustable temperature iron and some 60/40 solder to go with it for an upcoming project. It's good advice not to inhale the fumes. This should be the same for any kind of industrial work. However, I have to say that I have never had any ill effects being described by the others from soldering in the past. Likely a combination of not inhaling the fumes, being in a generally open area and not soldering for hours on end.

I love the smell of burning flux and solder fumes.

I use solder wick to clean the point on the circuit board before soldering. :)

First of all, every liquid does vapourise including melted solder. You don't need to boil it to get it airborne. So what you breathe is lead and tin fumes. I couldn't find info about the vapour pressure of the 60/40 solder, but probably it's very low so I wouldn't worry about this as much. Also that's inorganic form of lead which is less toxic. More serious stuff is dissolution of metalic lead and lead oxides in flux. Most often organic acids for example abietic acid(rosin, calaphony) are are used as fluxes . Fluxes helps in soldering because they reacts with metal oxides(including oxidised lead) which "cleans" copper so solder can make bond with it. Also fluxes(even in solid form) react with metalic lead, much slower though, but still. So basicly what you breathe are vaporised organic acid lead salts which is VERY bad for you especially because that's organic form of lead. Why do I know this stuff? I know basic chemistry skills. I am electronics engineer and been lead poisoned (done blood test, urine test).

Guys, please do not BLOW your fumes. Chances are, they will get spread out! Unless you're in a really ventilated area, where the stream of air is constant and the chances of you breathing in the same pocket of air in a few seconds, are low, you should make your fan *suck up* the fumes. That way, the fumes won't get *diluted* into the breathing space, and will directly be filtered into your filter.

no one told me that some aspirators had replaceable carbon filters that costs a few bucks. I don't solder as much as I used to but I have 10 of them working in tandem with 12cm pc fans all around me when I do now

I was dumb yesterday since I decided to solder in my kitchen and I felt drowsy after inhaling the smoke let off.😢

Mistakes in the video: 1. Substances can give off gas way below their boiling temperature. For example, water boils at 100°C, but evaporates at room temperature. 2. Flux doesn't have to boil, it's supposed to melt.

damn, sometimes I eat a bag of pretzels while I solder. lol!

Thank you so much!

Thanks friends. I really appreciate this safety video.

I should've watched this BEFORE soldering all the keys on my keyboard!!!!

I’m writing this comment before even watching the video. I do a lot of soldering for Roofing. It’s bad for you ! My coordination is off my hands and fingertips have a buzzing sensation and the headaches are incredible. This is after many many years of soldering without a respirator. Please don’t do what I did, it really sucks now

But... it smells so good! :-(((

I have a large "air conditioner" That is on wheels. I used it when moving houses but am thinking if setting up its inflow pipe to where I solder and using it as a fan. Then pointing it out of the window to get rid of all the fumes.

One thing i also learned as a plumber is not only are the fumes toxic. But you also ussually end up with flux on your hands its sticky and it doesnt wash out. Im always careful with flux so when i goto lunch i dont end up eating some flux along with my sandwich LOL

4:20 i often have eye and nose irritation when i solder

I love the FAN

What do you mean by well ventilated area ? My room has no windows, lol.

I'm a really safety conscious kind of guy, but I genuinely believe all this stuff is irrelevant, at least for the home hobbyist. A mates dad his his apprenticeship at the Mt Isa Lead refinery, they are literally smelting lead there 24/7 365 with every opportunity for it to become airborne. Every 2 weeks every single person goes for a blood test, his never came back high, only on the odd occasion would someones come back high, which then they would have a few weeks off and get right back at it. Broken hill has high levels of lead essentially everywhere, children from birth get blood tests done regularly so steps can be taken to reduce childhood exposure (which is when it matters most), (on a side note, in places like broken hill, there are public campaigns that encourage people to eat fruit, because vitamin C reduces lead absorption into the body). melting half an inch of leaded solder once in a blue moon with an iron just hot enough to melt it is just irrelevant. Even if you ingested the odd little ball of solder, its going to pass right through you, the weak stomach acids just cant break it down. a side note, in an adult, only about 10% of ingested/inhaled lead is absorbed into the body, it is much higher though for children. As for the smoke, as with any smoke, do your best to not breath it in, and that is about it, if you've ever been in a car on a road you've already been exposed to all that crap already in much much larger doses, while your filling your car at a servo your giving yourself a healthy dose of benzene and about a thousand other carcinogenic substances. What these people are talking about is occupational asthma, were talking about effects of soldering for hours upon hrs each day for literally decades, and even then you really need to be genetically predisposed to it, loads of these cases probably have cigarette smoking involved too. As for cases of asthma from acute exposure, that is that persons lungs tightening up due to a irritant being present, that happens with bushfire smoke all the time, for those people they know how to deal with it, if your susceptible to this a P95 mask will essentially reduce all risk. As for what I personally do, I am conscious with my work area, keeping it clean. I I don't eat while I'm working and wash my hands very well after I'm done, and I gently exhale blowing the fumes away from me while I'm actually performing the deed, and try not to breath the smoke.

Sir, thank you very much for your kind information

Thanks Sir Great information 💗

All a fan does is put the smoke further out into the same air everyone is breathing, you're still going to breath the fumes at a diluted level.

A TV repairmen who have been repairing TVs for years in our district died two years ago . I don't know the cause of his death , maybe it was related with the solder fumes he had inhaled over the years , he was in his early 40s

Thanks

It does contain lead. "Analysis of air samples in the exposure chamber showed the following fume concentrations: 0.193 mg/m3 for formaldehyde, 0.35 mg/m3 for Sn and 3 mg/m3 for Pb." from "Histological Study of the Toxic Effects of Solder Fumes on Spermatogenesis in Rats" Mohammad Et al. People will instinctively assume just because the temperature of the solder is below the boiling point of the metal then it doesn't boil. But it does.

A material does not need to boil to have some of it evaporate. How this relates to lead and tin I don't really know, but it's worth thinking about.

You have to be wory about Rosin core wire solder. Rosin is very bad for health and you become at risk to develop a lung and skin sensitization. The permissible exposure est very low. Do everething you can to reduce exposure as low as possible. If is possible avoid wire solder or flux with rosin. avoid flux with fluorhydric acid.

I always blew the fumes for that reason If too much entered my lung it doesn't play nice

i dont need to watch this to know that breathing most anything other then air isnt good for me, but nice to know just how not good it is for me.

Solder in the eye... I've done it. Peeled it off. Didn't scar luckily. Use some specs.

It only contains flux, if out has a rosin core.

ohh.. too late, I like the scent of these fumes..

A friend of mine was an electrician and was exposed to soldering fumes for many hours a day. He died of lung cancer at the age of 32.

Me when I solder at school not a lot of ventilation about 12 soldering irons theirs no sucking fans or filters in the room despite this being an expensive private school

I solder everyday at least 2 hours and never used a fume extractor but i never had head ache

Pls can it also chest pain ?

Wait with the use of a fan alone does the fume stay in the air near the user?

I usually exhale slowly when soldering.

wear a pair of 4544 gloves. They protect your hands in so many ways.

Don't do flux kids.

I know it's not good for health but I like the smell lol

Really good video, thank you Sir

Working for my university project just curious about the fume. I use a exhaust fan to take the fume outside of my room

i use an old air dryer fan with a silent brushless motor as a "vacum" for my flux smoke it then take the smoke outside my repair center ...i do macbook and logic board repair by the way...mail it in... its cheaper than any country english speaker.

What about from electronic iron for clothing. I had to go to sleep with that smell.

I get sick in the throat for a few days after soldering

i wonder if the research is industry funded.

So when im soldering, i always solder close to an open window, and when im doing the soldering, i do not breathe. I do not breath because: 1- if i dont breathe, my hands are more precise 2- i dont breath the smoke in. If i breathe, i always first breath outh the get the smoke away from my face. And i wash my hand 2 times after it. Is that good?

I do soldering yesterday once its smoke effect me or not tell me

I breathed that in and my flat now smell bad although I opened tge Windows for over 30min is it still poisonous?

I use gas mask with chemical vapour filter.

Tks Gary. Many substances are gasses &/or evaporate substantially below their boiling point. eg. water vapour/clouds. (even at 10degC, I can use a fan to speed dry my damp clothes) (I think it is just that above boiling point, the substance cannot exit as a liquid anymore. Hence, boiling water cannot be >100degC @ std pressure) (& even though the steam rapidly cools down, it remains a vapour). So there may be lead & tin in the fumes?? [ PS: An insane thought: A fan may slightly? increase evaporation / toxic vapors?, but at least they won't be going into our body!! :) :) :) haha

Thanks for the video 👌👌

One of the studies I read many years ago indicated that about 20 percent of solderers developed sensitivity to the fumes. The symptoms mimicked asthma. I solder in the fume hood in the lab or at home use a fan to disperse the fumes. So far so good after forty plus years.

Man i was soldering from early Age, besides brain damage, oh wait that was always there, okay I'm all okay.

A link to the referenced fumes analysis would have been useful.

Cheap and best method is to buy exhaust fan... as I cannot stand that smoke

I was just given a soldering iron as my first, do you think a big stand up fan would help to take away the fumes